He is not "an Australian man", Ms Barker, in any real sense. He is an Arab Muslim who currently possesses the temporary and tactical convenience of an Australian passport. - CM

'An Australian man has been jailed in Israel after having been found guilty of collaborating with the militant organisation Hamas.

'Militant organisation'. No: 'Jihad terror gang'. - CM

'Eyad Abu Arga has been sentenced to 30 months in jail after being found guilty of providing services to an illegal organisation - namely Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules Gaza.

That is, the Palestinian Arab Muslim jihad gang that rules Gaza. - CM

'Israel alleges he carried out surveillance work, including sourcing information and technology to improve the accuracy of missile strikes, and to find ways of knowing whether a phone had been tapped.

He has been tried, and found guilty. One must assume that the evidence presented, was sufficient. It would have to have been; this was an Israeli court, not the kind of court one would encounter in Islamic Jordan, or Islamic Egypt, or Islamic Pakistan, but a western-style court, with scrupulous attention paid to the presentation and weighing of evidence. Ms Barker, however, with her sly 'alleges', prefers to imply that the Israelis are lying, and that Mr Abu Arga is a poor persecuted victim of the wicked Joooz. - CM

'He had originally pleaded not guilty, but he recently made a plea bargain with prosecutors to admit to one charge in return for a jail sentence. Another charge was dropped.

'Eyad Abu Arga has been in custody since March, when he was arrested as he arrived at Tel Aviv airport.

'He is a Palestinian refugee who grew up in the Arabian Gulf but later moved to Australia and took out Australian citizenship.

'Palestinian refugee'. I understand, from earlier reports, that he was born in Kuwait, to Levantine Arab Muslim parents who had at one time - I do not know for how long - resided in what is now Israel. And given that he then moved to Australia, and settled there, and acquired Australian citizenship, I do not think that he can properly be referred to as a 'refugee' any more. The Australian-born children of Vietnamese refugees who settled in Australia, and who have Australian citizenship, are not normally referred to as 'Vietnamese refugees'. So why should this Kuwait-born child of Arab Muslim parents (parents who at one time had resided - for perhaps as brief a period as two years- in what is now Israel, and had then - when the jihad against the Jews was defeated - fled to Kuwait), this Kuwait-born Arab Muslim who then went to Australia, and holds an Australian passport, be referred to as 'a Palestinian refugee'??? - CM

'More recently he and his family have lived in Saudi Arabia, where Israel alleges he was recruited by Hamas to carry out espionage."

Note, again, that sly phrase, 'Israel alleges'.

The Israelis would not be putting this Arab Muslim in jail for 30 months if they had not found good and sufficient evidence - evidence that stood up in an Israeli court of law - that he was indeed recruited by Hamas, and working for Hamas. - CM